1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sum of product arithmetic technique, and more particularly, to an SIMD sum of product arithmetic method, an SIMD sum of product arithmetic circuit, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device equipped with the SIMD sum of product arithmetic circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, attention has been paid to SIMD (Single Instruction Stream-Multiple Data Stream) arithmetic for concurrently processing (computing) a plurality of data with one instruction. In order to realize a high-functional and high-performance system for carrying out (executing) high-speed data processing and image processing, as in a color laser printer or a navigation system, for example, it is necessary to use a powerful processor having an SIMD arithmetic function.
The SIMD technique is a control system for concurrently processing a plurality of data with one instruction, and SIMD matrix arithmetic (processing) is an SIMD (sum of product) arithmetic technique capable of executing matrix arithmetic at high speed. In the sum of product arithmetic circuit for carrying out such SIMD matrix arithmetic, a new path (process) for copying or swapping the arguments of a matrix arithmetic is necessary, and this has lowered the processing performance. Therefore, there has been a strong demand for the provision of a sum of product arithmetic circuit capable of executing an SIMD arithmetic at high speed.
The prior art and the problems associated with the prior art will be described in detail, later, with reference to accompanying drawings.